


Lost in the Woods

by meddlesome_hero



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena, ３月のライオン | March Comes in Like A Lion (Manga)
Genre: Anthy Himemiya meeting characters that she shouldn't be meeting, Crossover, Gen, Metaphors, gratuitous fairy tale imagery, i know nothing about shogi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:27:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29528472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meddlesome_hero/pseuds/meddlesome_hero
Summary: When Rei starts playing a friendly match against an amateur, he gets more than he bargained for.
Kudos: 2





	Lost in the Woods

**Lost in the Woods**

It’s getting warmer by the minute. The rays of the midday sun are falling right upon us as we continue our game. I try to take a sip from my bottle of water only to find that it’s already empty. I wipe the sweat that’s falling from my forehead with the back of my left hand and put down a new piece on the board with my right. I await for my rival’s next move.

My opponent gasps when she sees where I put my piece. I just want to end this as quickly as possible, but for some reason, every time I make a move I get a bad feeling as if I were waiting for a storm that hasn’t arrived yet. Why can’t I even make myself to look directly at my opponent? From the corner of my eyes I think I see her smile but I’m not really sure. She puts her piece. Her Golden General is right there, ready for me to take it. An obvious bait. I won’t fall for that. 

I open my lemonade bottle and drink. I really need the sugar right now. The weather is warm but I shouldn’t be sweating that much. This is supposed to be just a friendly match on a local festival. Why is it getting so hard? Why am I getting so nervous? 

I continue with my attack on the board.

“Oh my, are you really sure?” , she asks, fingers drumming as she ponders her next move.

“What shall I do? I wonder, I wonder”, she says on a sing-song tone.

Her move doesn’t affect my original plan at all. I feel strangely relieved. It will be fine, of course it will be fine. As long as I stick to my plan I will win. There’s nothing to worry about. After all I’m a pro playing against and amateur. This will end soon.

My rival’s next move doesn’t make any sense. Maybe she already knows that this is a lost cause and she’s just playing fool. I keep up with my strategy and suddenly she decides to take one of my pawns. I analyze the board. It doesn’t look like a trap or any game that I can remember. I can’t understand her style. Sometimes it’s defensive and sometimes there are weak attempts to attack. I move another piece and as I place it on the board I feel my stomach lurching. What’s going on?

She keeps up with her erratic movements; I stick to my plan and then I notice that I have to change some moves. How did she—?

I inhale deeply. There’s nothing to worry about. I just have to make some counterattacks. I just need to focus. It will be fine. I can win.

The game continues its natural course. My imminent victory has only suffered a slight delay, but I will eventually get there. I can finally understand that sensation I’ve been having during the match. I overestimated her. Her game is like a deep and dark forest so full of trees that you can’t anticipate its hidden bogs. How did it grow? Has anyone been able to get out of there? It’s disorienting and dangerous. I explore it cautiously, if I’m not careful I might be unable to find my way out.

I don’t have to worry about this, I can win.

“And now I will put this over here”, she says, chuckling slightly.

When I counterattack, panic takes hold of me. And that’s when I realize. It’s all a trap. One by one my defenses fall under attacks I was unable to anticipate. It’s nothing, I tell myself. I still can win. I modify my strategy and… How many times have I done that? Where is she taking me to? I was mistaken, the forest is even more dangerous and its overflowing with treacherous vines that can trap me. I try to cut them down, make my way through it. If I do it I’ll win.

It’s useless, every time I destroy an obstacle, two more appear. There are too many. I can’t anticipate movements and strategies anymore. The vines surround me, I get entangled, I can’t see a way out. I can’t breathe, I…

Big beads of sweat fall over the board. My bottle of lemonade is already empty. The sun is about to set but I still feel suffocated by the heat. I see my pieces. It’s useless. As I let the vines take hold of me, the castle at the end of the forest stands there, taunting me. I was never meant to get there. I was never meant to win.

“I give up”, I finally say.

And then, I finally raise my head and look her in the eye. She’s different from when I first saw her a long time ago, when the game started. She looked… ordinary and not much older than me. Now I know I was deceived. That woman is like no one I had ever met before nor like anyone I’ll ever get to meet.

She smiles, acting like she didn’t notice what I had just discovered.

“We had a good game, Kiriyama-kun. It was really fun to play with a pro. You know, it's been _ages_ since the last time I played shogi. I was afraid I was a little bit rusty. You didn’t get bored, right?”. She says delighted, and I know that she means every word.

“Not at all”, I say, and I mean it. Of all the things I felt during the game, boredom wasn’t one of them.

When we review the match I realize that my fate had been sealed almost from the very start. Way before I started having a bad feeling about it. Unknowingly I kept making my moves thinking that I would win soon when in fact I was only dancing at the pace of a dance of her own doing. A macabre dance.

I gulp, if she were a pro, no one would have a chance against her.

“You scare me, Ms. Himemiya”.

She smiles once again.

“Really? Oh… thank you”.

The sun sets. Night will come soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Remember Anthy's "domo domo" when Nanami told her that she scared her? That's what I was going for at the end.


End file.
